As editor, I hope to engage and inspire each of you through a story, a photograph, a moment in every issue. The assorted perspectives that you bring as readers inspire me—and the other editors and designers of the Bulletin—to make the prose snappier, the art livelier, and the science more comprehensible. We truly relish the process of taking a story from the nut of an idea to a dimensional whole that is informative, visually appealing, and a good read.

I know firsthand how much fun science and the people who do it can be—I spent more than 20 years working at the bench in biomedical research labs, in academia and industry. I moved into science journalism partly because I grew weary of worn comments about how science is dull and scientists boring. Nothing, in my experience, could be further from the truth. From learning to clone and sequence genes in Oliver Smithies’ University of Wisconsin lab, in the early 1980s, to working with Genentech scientists to gain FDA approval of the cancer drug Herceptin—two of the highlights of my research career—I’ve encountered extraordinary creativity and inventiveness in every research lab and science classroom.

Having spent 2 years as assistant editor of the Bulletin before stepping into this new role, I am deeply enlisted in the mission of “communicating the elegance and significance of science through the lens of HHMI-sponsored research and grants for education.” Telling the stories of the talented, energetic, and committed people who are the heart and soul of the Institute has been the role of the Bulletin since its inception. I intend to carry that legacy forward in new and inventive ways. If you see something in the magazine that moves you, I hope you’ll let me know.